Literary and Philosophical Essays: French, German and Italian

Michel De Montaigne, Various

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• Publié par: otto
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 109
• Langue: English

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Philosophical Essays, by Various
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Title: Literary and Philosophical EssaysAuthor: Various
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG
EBOOK, LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL
ESSAYS ***
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Distributed Proofreading Team.
LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL
ESSAYS
HARVARD CLASSICS V32CONTENTS
THAT WE SHOULD NOT JUDGE OF OUR
HAPPINESS UNTIL AFTER OUR DEATH THAT
TO PHILOSOPHISE IS TO LEARNE How TO DIE
OF THE INSTITUTION AND
EDUCATION OF CHILDREN OF FRIENDSHIP OF
BOOKES BY MONTAIGNE
MONTAIGNE
WHAT IS A CLASSIC? BY CHASLES-AUGUSTIN
SAINTE-BEUVE
THE POETRY OF THE CELTIC RACES BY
ERNEST RENAN
THE EDUCATION OF THE HUMAN RACE BY
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
LETTERS UPON THE AESTHETIC EDUCATION
OF MAN BY J. C. FRIEDRICH VON SCHILLER
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF THE
METAPHYSIC OF MORALS
TRANSITION FROM POPULAR MORAL
PHILOSOPHY TO THE METAPHYSIC OF
MORALSIMMANUEL KANT
BYRON AND GOETHE BY GIUSEPPE MAZZINI
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
Michel Eyquem De Montaigne, the founder of the
modern Essay, was born February 28, 1533, at the
chateau of Montaigne in Pirigord. He came of a
family of wealthy merchants of Bordeaux, and was
educated at the College de Guyenne, where he
had among his teachers the great Scottish Latinist,
George Buchanan. Later he studied law, and held
various public offices; but at the age of thirty-eight
he retired to his estates, where he lived apart from
the civil wars of the time, and devoted himself to
study and thought. While he was traveling in
Germany and Italy, in 1580-81, he was elected
mayor of Bordeaux, and this office he filled for four
years. He married in 1565, and had six daughters,
only one of whom grew up. The first two books of
his "Essays" appeared in 1580; the third in 1588;
and four years later he died.
These are the main external facts of Montaigne's
life: of the man himself the portrait is to be found in
his book. "It is myself I portray," he declares; and
there is nowhere in literature a volume of self-
revelation surpassing his in charm and candor. He
is frankly egotistical, yet modest and unpretentious;profoundly wise, yet constantly protesting his
ignorance; learned, yet careless, forgetful, and
inconsistent. His themes are as wide and varied as
his observation of human life, and he has written
the finest eulogy of friendship the world has known.
Bacon, who knew his book and borrowed from it,
wrote on the same subject; and the contrast of the
essays is the true reflection of the contrast
between the personalities of their authors.
Shortly after Montaigne's death the "Essays" were
translated into English by John Florio, with less
than exact accuracy, but in a style so full of the
flavor of the age that we still read Montaigne in the
version which Shakespeare knew. The group of
examples here printed exhibits the author in a
variety of moods, easy, serious, and, in the essay
on "Friendship," as nearly impassioned as his
philosophy ever allowed him to become.
Reader, be here a well-meaning Booke. It doth at
the firth entrance forewarne thee, that in contriving
the same I have proposed unto my selfe no other
than a familiar and private end: I have no respect
or consideration at all, either to thy service, or to
my glory: my forces are not capable of any such
desseigne. I have vowed the same to the particular
commodity of my kinsfolks and friends: to the end,
that losing me (which they are likely to doe ere
long), they may therein find some lineaments of my
conditions and humours, and by that meanes
reserve more whole, and more lively foster the
knowledge and acquaintance they have had of me.
Had my intention beene to forestal and purchasethe world's opinion and favour, I would surely have
adorned myselfe more quaintly, or kept a more
grave and solemne march. I desire therein to be
delineated in mine owne genuine, simple and
ordinarie fashion, without contention, art or study;
for it is myself e I pourtray. My imperfections shall
therein be read to the life, and my naturall forme
discerned, so farre-forth as publike reverence hath
permitted me. For if my fortune had beene to have
lived among those nations which yet are said to live
under the sweet liberty of Nature's first and
uncorrupted lawes, I assure thee, I would most
willingly have pourtrayed my selfe fully and naked.
Thus, gentle Reader, myself I am the groundworke
of my booke: it is then no reason thou shouldest
employ thy time about so frivolous and vaine a
subject.
Therefore farewell.
From MONTAIGNE,
The First of March, 1580.THAT WE SHOULD NOT JUDGE
OF OUR HAPPINESSE UNTILL
AFTER OUR DEATH
scilicet ultima semper
Expectanda dies homini est, dicique beatus
Ante obitum nemo, supremaque funera debat.
[Footnote: Ovid. Met. 1, iii. 135.]
We must expect of man the latest day,
Nor ere he die, he's happie, can we say.
The very children are acquainted with the storie of
Croesus to this purpose: who being taken by
Cyrus, and by him condemned to die, upon the
point of his execution, cried out aloud: "Oh Solon,
Solon!" which words of his, being reported to
Cyrus, who inquiring what he meant by them, told
him, hee now at his owne cost verified the
advertisement Solon had before times given him;
which was, that no man, what cheerefull and
blandishing countenance soever fortune shewed
them, may rightly deeme himselfe happie, till such
time as he have passed the last day of his life, by
reason of the uncertaintie and vicissitude of
humane things, which by a very light motive, and
slight occasion, are often changed from one to
another cleane contrary state and degree. And
therefore Agesilaus answered one that counted the
King of Persia happy, because being very young,
he had gotten the garland of so mightie and greata dominion: "yea but said he, Priam at the same
age was not unhappy." Of the Kings of Macedon
that succeeded Alexander the Great, some were
afterward seene to become Joyners and
Scriveners at Rome: and of Tyrants of Sicilie,
Schoolemasters at Corinth. One that had
conquered halfe the world, and been Emperour
over so many, Armies, became an humble and
miserable suter to the raskally officers of a king of
AEgypte: At so high a rate did that great Pompey
purchase the irkesome prolonging of his life but for
five or six moneths. And in our fathers daies,
Lodowicke Sforze, tenth Duke of Millane, under
whom the State of Italic had so long beene
turmoiled and shaken, was seene to die a
wretched prisoner at Loches in France, but not till
he had lived and lingered ten yeares in thraldom,
which was the worst of his bargaine. The fairest
Queene, wife to the greatest King of
Christendome, was she not lately scene to die by
the hands of an executioner? Oh unworthie and
barbarous cruelties And a thousand such
examples. For, it seemeth that as the sea-billowes
and surging waves, rage and storme against the
surly pride and stubborne height of our buildings,
so are there above, certaine spirits that envie the
rising prosperities and greatnesse heere below.
Vsque adeb res humanas vis abdita quadam
Obterit, et pulchros fasces sav&sque secures
Proculcare, ac ludibrio sibi habere videtur.
[Footnote: LUCRET. I. v. 1243.]
A hidden power so mens states hath out-worne Faire swords, fierce scepters, signes of
honours borne,
It seemes to trample and deride in scorne.
And it seemeth Fortune doth sometimes narrowly
watch the last day of our life, thereby to shew her
power, and in one moment to overthrow what for
many yeares together she had been erecting, and
makes us cry after Laberius, Nimirum hoc die una
plus vixi, mihi quam vivendum fuit. [Footnote:
MACHOB, 1, ii. 7.] Thus it is, "I have lived longer
by this one day than I should." So may that good
advice of Solon be taken with reason. But
forsomuch as he is a Philosopher, with whom the
favours or disfavours